The Lee University men’s basketball team lost its second consecutive Gulf South Conference game with a 74-66 defeat at the University of West Georgia (7-3, 4-0 GSC). The Flames are now 6-4 overall and 2-2 in conference play heading into Monday’s game at West Alabama. The GSC contest is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EST.
The Flames trailed by 10 with 1:24 left in the game before scoring seven points over the next 20 seconds to cut the deficit to three with 1:04 remaining. Lee was unable to get any closer and West Georgia made 5-of-8 free throws to supply the final margin.
“We were decent tonight,” said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. “To win on the road, you have to be better than that. West Georgia was not their best today and it really wasn’t anything we did to keep us that close.”
Keevin Tyus led the Lee offense with 17 points and five rebounds. Rico Overall added 12 markers and five boards, while Jervon Johnson rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points. Johnson also grabbed seven rebounds.
Ryan Montgomery recorded a team-high eight rebounds to go with eight points. Levi Woods and Cody Jones were the team leaders with three assists each.
Lee made 23-of-75 shots (.307) from the field and were 8-for-30 (.267) from behind the arc. The Wolves were 24-for-53 (.453) from the floor and 4-for-14 (.286) from distance. The big difference was at the free throw line. Lee took 17 trips to the line and converted 12, while the hosts were 22-for-37 at the stripe.
The Flames turned the ball over just nine times and forced West Georgia into 13 floor mistakes to outscore the Wolves in points off turnovers 19-10.
“We’ll need to be much tougher and stronger on Monday,” added Smith. “Hopefully we’ll bounce back and be ready to go next time around.”
In the women's game, where baskets were tough to come by for both teams the Lee women's basketball saw its seven game winning streak snapped at the hands of West Georgia, 49-47 on the final afternoon of 2016.
Aysha Harris hit two clutch free throws with just three seconds remaining to give the Wolves the victory. Freshman Abby Bertram converted a jumper in the paint for the Lady Flames to tie things up at 47 with 25 seconds left.
Lee converted just 30 percent of its shots from the field and hit only 4 of 23 from beyond the arc. The rim proved unkind to the Lady Flames at the charity stripe as well, as they made just 13 of 21 attempts.
West Georgia suffered a near identical fate offensively as it shot 30 percent from the floor and hit 4 of 22 triples. The Wolves were 11 of 17 from the foul line but hit two at the end when it counted most to seal the victory.
Carrie Cheeks led the Lady Flames with 12 points and six rebounds. Erin Walsh followed with 10 points and canned three treys. Shelby Brown jumped off the bench to provided eight points and six rebounds.
De'Ashia Jones led the Wolves with 21 points to go along with seven rebounds. Harris followed with 12 points on a perfect 8 of 8 shooting from the free-throw line.
The evenly contested battle saw four ties and seven lead changes.
The Lady Flames were playing in their first road contest since a Nov. 19 win at Young Harris College.
"As a team, myself included we have to be better on the road to win in this conference," said head coach Marty Rowe. "We had several opportunities to stretch leads in the fourth quarter and just didn't finish. So let's see this group handles adversity going into Monday's game."
West Georgia climbs back to .500 overall with the victory at 4-4. The Wolves improve to 3-1 in the GSC. Lee falls to 8-2 on the season and 3-1 in league play.
The Lady Flames will look to get back into the win column on Monday as they open up the New Year at West Alabama. Tip time is set for 6:30 p.m. Lee returns to Walker Arena on Saturday Jan. 7 for a 2 p.m. showdown with Valdosta State.